Hedge Street Inc., founded by Portola Valley, Calif.-based investment company Pareto Partners, got approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to start an electronic exchange offering options on single events. Investors will be able to use the exchange to bet on or guard against events or indexes that do not have an underlying market, such as economic indicators, according to documents posted on the CFTC website.

Crude oil futures jumped 2.2% on Thursday, to the highest level since March 17, after a bomb exploded outside the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad -- heightening fears that violence will keep Iraqi oil exports below pre-war levels. Also, natural gas futures surged 7% after a government report said U.S. reserves last week posted the smallest gain since May, increasing concern about shortages next winter. In the oil market near-term futures in New York rose 69 cents to $32.

Gasoline futures rose 2.9% to a four-month high in New York trading Tuesday on speculation that summer travel and refinery shutdowns are sapping inventories that already are below normal. The nation's gasoline reserves declined about 1.18 million barrels last week, based on a Bloomberg survey of analysts ahead of a weekly government report. ConocoPhillips and at least two other companies curtailed production at U.S. refineries in the last month because of unscheduled repairs.

The Pentagon unceremoniously jettisoned plans Tuesday to establish a futures market in Middle Eastern terrorist attacks, handing another in a long string of defeats to Iran-Contra figure John M. Poindexter, the point man for the program.

The war on terrorism has come to this: The Pentagon is setting up a commodity-style market to use real investors -- putting down real money -- to help its generals predict terrorist attacks, coups d'etat and other turmoil in the Middle East. Under the program, revealed Monday by two of its critics in the Senate, investors with knowledge of the Middle East would be lured -- by the prospect of making money of course -- into using their expertise to buy and sell futures contracts on world events.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the biggest U.S. futures exchange, invalidated some transactions of futures contracts tied to the Standard & Poor's 500 index Monday after the electronically traded contract tumbled 9.5 points in four seconds. The market in general was slumping at the time of the invalidated trades. The S&P 500, up more than 17 points earlier in the day, closed up less than 6 points, or 0.6%.

Not all trading has dried up in the securities markets. Futures and options trading rose 37% to a record last year, led by contracts tied to stock indexes and interest rates, the Futures Industry Assn. said Thursday. Futures and options trading at 56 exchanges rose to 6 billion contracts in 2002, from 4.38 billion in 2001, FIA said. Trading in contracts tied to equity indexes accounted for most of the gain, rising 86% to 2.79 billion contracts.

The stock market isn't providing much action for traders lately, but they can find plenty of it in commodities markets. On Monday, wheat and corn futures in Chicago hit five-year highs on fears that weather problems will delay harvests and damage crops in the U.S. and Canada. In New York, gold's latest rally continued, driving prices to seven-week highs on jitters about possible new terrorist attacks. Wheat for September delivery jumped 11.5 cents to $4.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission are working to allow trading of single-stock futures by early in the second quarter of 2002, the agencies said Wednesday. In a joint news release, the SEC and the CFTC pledged to seek prompt adoption of rules that must be in place before the trading can begin. The rules address margin requirements and the protection of customer funds. SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt and CFTC Chairman James E.

Silver futures fell to an eight-year low Tuesday, as slowing economies reduce consumer demand for photographic film and paper containing the metal. U.S. film sales probably will fall 2% this year, the first decline since 1992, said Caroline Sabbagha, an analyst at Lehman Bros. Lower sales of paper and film contributed to a 37% drop in second-quarter profit for Eastman Kodak Co., the biggest single user of silver. Silver for September delivery fell 2 cents, or 0.5%, to $4.